I first began doing these rankings several years ago as an aid for my own submission process. I wanted to submit my work within tiers of magazines, so that I wouldn’t find myself having to choose between an excellent magazine and a lesser one. When I shared the list on my blog, it was immediately very popular. I updated it each year and later expanded it to cover Nonfiction and Poetry, as well.

The lists are as objective as I can make them. They are based solely on the number of Pushcart Prizes and Special Mentions a magazine has received over a rolling 10-year period in each genre. (In updating the list this year I dropped 2006 and added 2016 prizes and special mentions.) I don’t take into consideration readership, contributor payment, or any other factor. Granted, the Pushcart Prize itself is not objective, but it seems to me to be the most democratic of the annual anthologies because its nomination process is somewhat transparent. Also, the Prizes have an apparent bias against online magazines, although that continues to erode, as you’ll see from this year’s list. There are some fine online and hybrid magazines included here.

No method of ranking is perfect, but I hope you will find these lists useful. I have attempted to check all the links, but if you find one that is broken or have information about a closed magazine (which I indicate with a copyright symbol for “closed”), please leave a comment here or write to me at info@cliffordgarstang.com.

If you do find the lists useful, consider making a donation using the link below, or maybe buying one of my books, which you’ll find here: Clifford Garstang on Amazon.com.

At AWP in Minneapolis, several people came up to me at the Press 53/Prime Number Magazine booth to tell me how much they appreciated the Pushcart Prize Literary Magazine Rankings I compile each year on this site. (If you’re not familiar with the rankings, click on that link, check it out, and come back.) I was really pleased to hear those comments. I do think the rankings are a valuable tool for writers who are submitting their work to magazines, so I’m happy to hear from users of the lists.

I’m frequently at a conference or residency where the subject of literary magazines comes up. Invariably someone says, “There’s a guy who posts a ranking of literary magazines on his website.” It gives me great pleasure to be able to say, “I’m that guy.”

Some people put little stock in rankings, and in many areas I respect that view. It doesn’t matter what the rank of a magazine (or college, or MFA program, or whatever) is if it is a good fit for you. That’s still the most important question writers have to ask themselves when submitting their work. But a little guidance doesn’t hurt, and that’s where the lists come in.

On the other hand, the lists are really only the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of magazines out there, both print and online, that are NOT on the lists. What about them? For example, the magazine I edit, Prime Number Magazine, is not on my list. I think we have a pretty good magazine, and we’ve achieved some recognition, but we have yet to win a Pushcart Prize or a Special Mention. So, according to the list criteria, we aren’t ranked. So I’m glad writers find the list useful, but we all need to think outside the list when looking for the perfect venue for our work.

I began this effort several years ago. I had decided to take a tiered approach to submitting short stories to magazines, but it was difficult to decide how to tier the magazines. By tiering, I mean that I wanted to submit to magazines that were roughly equal in reputation and quality, so that if one accepted a piece (Tin House, say) it wouldn’t rip my heart out to withdraw it from other magazines in the same tier (One Story, say). If on the other hand I had received an acceptance from an unknown magazine, it would kill me to have to withdraw from Ploughshares if I had made the mistake of submitting to both at the same time.

So I came up with this simple system. I would rank magazines based solely on the number of Pushcart Prizes and Special Mentions the magazines had won over a ten year period. I chose the Pushcart Prize instead of the Best American series or the O. Henry Prize because it seems somewhat more transparent–magazine editors nominate in all genres, and the prizes and special mentions go to all kinds of small magazines (although online journals are still mostly ignored, which is a drawback.). I opted for a ten-year period because reputations don’t develop over night, and it seemed to me that magazines do need to earn their places on the list with consistency over the years. Some have argued that ten years is too long. They may be right. (I’ve experimented with using a five-year period, but for now I’m sticking with ten.) It may also be of interest to readers that the ranking is based on a very simple formula that awards a point for each Special Mention received and then multiple points for each Pushcart Prize received. Thus a magazine with one point on the list has received one Special Mention in the last ten years, but a magazine with a higher total will have received either multiple Special Mentions or a combination of Prizes and Special Mentions.

Some people argue that the whole ranking thing is silly. If that’s how you feel, you are invited to ignore the whole thing. I’ve heard from lots of people who refer to the rankings regularly, however, so I am certain that lots of people find it useful. As long as that is the case, I’ll keep doing them.

Something I haven’t mentioned before, but probably should have: I am in no way affiliated with the Pushcart Press that organizes the prizes and publishes the anthology each year. In fact, I don’t think they know I exist. I do these rankings without their input or permission. Also, I don’t get paid to do this. I do, however, accept donations via the handy PayPal buttons that you will see along with the lists. No pressure or guilt associated with the donations, but some people have been generous and I do appreciate it.

The lists (in Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction) will be posted today and tomorrow. I welcome feedback–broken links or whatever–in the comment section or by email to info@cliffordgarstang.com.

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About

Clifford Garstang is a fiction writer and former international lawyer. His novel in stories, WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, won the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. He is also the author of a story collection, IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, and the editor of two anthologies, EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET, Volumes I and II.